A StarNewsOnline Blog

The emporium for all things literary

This post really should have come out around Halloween, but I can’t resist it. If you loved “CSI” in any of its incarnations, if you adore Evelyn Waugh’s “The Loved One” — or Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs — and if walking around cemeteries is your idea of a good time, let me recommend a book titled “The Chick and the Dead” by Carla Valentine (St. Martin’s, $25.95). It originally came out in England under the title “Past Mortems.” Valentine… Read More »

For most Americans, Russian and Soviet-era science fiction are undiscovered territory. A few aficionados might be aware of Alexsey Tolstoy’s 1923 novel “Aelita,” in which an intrepid cosmonaut falls in love with a Martian princess and leads the oppressed Martian masses into revolution. Film buffs might know “Solaris,” the long, obscure film by Andre Tarkovsky (based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem), about Earthlings’ and aliens’ failure to communicate. (George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh did an English-language adaptation in 2002,… Read More »

Best-selling author Dava Sobel makes both science and history clear and entertaining in such volumes as “Longitude” and Galileo’s Daughter.” Somehow I missed her 2016 book “The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars” (Viking, $30), but I’ve been catching up for lost time. This text takes a little patience, if you’re not an astronomy nut like me, but the story at the end is enthralling. Who says girls aren’t good at… Read More »

Like LP records and Polaroid photos, the humble board game is becoming retro chic. That’s the thesis of British journalist Tristan Donovan in “It’s All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan” (Thomas Dunne, $26.99) In big cities, Donovan finds, hipsters are flocking to board game cafes, where they pay for the privilege of taking on others in Monopoly or Life or Settlers of Catan. It’s even bigger, naturally, in South Korea, while 200… Read More »

He was a hero in two world wars and a founder of the American Legion, who would have been the organization’s first president if he hadn’t turned the job down. He was governor of Puerto Rico and governor-general of the Philippines. He led expeditions to the Himalayas, to Central Asia and to the Orinoco River basin in South America, collecting specimens for the Field Museum in Chicago. As a vice president of the Doubleday publishing house, he hobnobbed with the… Read More »

The other day, someone reposted a piece from the 8-year-old website “Business Insider” titled “The Most Famous Book That Takes Place in Every State.” (Want to read it? Click here.) Please permit me to rant. OK, they didn’t say the “best” book, or the one that sold the most copies. In my humble opinion, though, the post smells as if some list-obsessed editor assigned a random idea to two interns who certainly weren’t English majors and probably hadn’t read many books… Read More »

Everyone’s heard of the mutiny on the Bounty, of course, thanks to the 1932 best-selling novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall and the multiple film versions. (Who’s your favorite Captain Bligh: Charles Laughton, Trevor Howard or Anthony Hopkins?). But who’s heard of the mutiny on the HMS Hermione on Sept. 21, 1797? It was a much more potent affair; while the Bounty was essentially a glorified scow, shipping breadfruit to Tahiti, the Hermione was a 32-gun frigate, an… Read More »

Living in an age of larger-than-life authors — Oscar Wilde famously declared that he put his genius into his life and only his talent in to his work — Bram Stoker, the creator of “Dracula,” is almost a cipher. That was the way he wanted it; in a reserved age, Stoker gave away almost nothing of his personal life. Author David J. Skal (“Monster Show,” “Hollywood Gothic”), however, has managed to piece together an intriguing mosaic of Stoker’s inner life in… Read More »

This Christmas, lots of young people (we hope) will rediscover “Charlotte’s Web,” the wonderful, heartbreaking barnyard tale of love, determination and friendship. Surely, some kindly aunt or uncle will slip it under the tree. For those who’ve already read “Charlotte’s Web,” and loved it, we suggest a follow up: “Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White” by Caldecott Honor winner Melissa Sweet (HRH Books, $18.99), a gracious salute to E.B. White, the man who wrote “Charlotte’s Web.” White (1899-1985) did… Read More »

I have a sweet tooth for World War II mysteries, like Sarah Sahber’s “Louise’s War” series. And one of the sweetest is author James R. Benn’s line of “Billy Boyle” novels. For those who came in late , Billy is a young Boston police detective from a big Irish family (including a couple of IRA sympathizers). Pulled out of the ranks, he’s suddenly transferred to SHA#F headquarters and put to work as Gen. Eisenhower’s personal investigator and troubleshooter. (Turns out that… Read More »

If you think America has hit rock bottom, just look back a few years — say, to 1974. That year, the stock market has just lost half its value in the “oil shock” after the Arab-Israeli War. Inflation (remember that?) was 12 percent. And the USA suffered 2,044 bombings with 24 killed — not by Muslim terrorists but by our own homegrown boys and girls. A small gaggle of radicals, disenchanted by Richard Nixon’s shellacking of George McGovern in 1972,… Read More »

Gen. Clifton B. Cates was one of the 20th century legends of the U.S. Marine Corps. He commanded the 1st Marines at Guadalcanal and the 4th Marine Division at Iwo Jima. As 19th commandant of the Corps, from 1948 to 1952, he fought a reasr-guard action against budget cuts and led the Corps into the Korean War. A new book, however, focuses on the start of Cates’ storied career, as a green lieutenant in the trenches of the Western Front… Read More »

If your dad is a Trekker, this might be the book for him: National Geographic Books has just issue “Star Trek: The True Science Behind the Starship Voyages.” ($24.95). Beam me up right now. Several books have tackled the topic before, such as Lawrence M. Krauss’ “The Physics of Star Trek.” National Geographic, however, tackles the topic with its strengths: Great photos, mind-blowing color graphics and strong layout and design. There’s as little attention to fanboy stuff, such as the… Read More »

So many books, so little time … so I’m just getting around to one of my guilty pleasures — “Scents and Sensibility,” the latest “Chet and Bernie” mystery from Spencer Quinn. Lucky you, it comes out in paperback June 21 from Atria Books. For those who came in late: Chet is a dog. He tells the story. A mixed breed (don’t all him “mongrel”) with one black ear and one white ear, Chet was gong to be a police K-9… Read More »

Among my guilty pleasures are the “Billy Boyle” mysteries by James R. Benn. Set during World War II, the novels follow Billy — a young Boston police detective — who finds himself assigned as Gen. Eisenhower’s personal troubleshooter. The job has Billy solving mysteries from England to North Africa to the middle of the wartime Vatican. I’ve only just caught up though, with “The White Ghoat,” Benn’s novel from September 2015 (Soho, $26.95). This one takes Billy and his sidekick “Kaz”… Read More »

About This Blog

This is an emporium for all things literary: occasional book reviews, local book news, items about authors (mostly from the Cape Fear area but occasional visitors) and miscellaneous rants.

The usual author is Ben Steelman, feature writer and book columnist for the Star-News. He’s that shaggy, slightly smelly character you spot lurking in the back aisles of your local bookstore. Physically, he has more than a passing resemblance to Ignatius J. Reilly, hero of John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces” — some observers have noted other parallels as well.